recipease, london

pretty good breakfast in notting hill. this was the first breakfast I had in london since arriving, and it was more a convenience meal than a destination one – I hadn’t realized it was a jamie oliver establishment until we walked through the door – since it was only about 5 minutes away from where we were staying.

I’m not sure how to go about describing this place, but it felt very much like a british cafe, the like of which I miss in singapore – vibrant but calm, welcoming, and somehow feels like you’ll get a good cup of tea (only now do I realise how spoilt I was by the countless steaming cups of tea I had back in college) in there. it also fits with the impression oliver has been portraying these few years – it’s not something I can necessarily describe, but suffice to say that if you’ve been watching his shows and enjoy his aesthetic, you’ll feel at home here.

recipease is a two-storey establishment, with a deli and open kitchen on the ground floor, and a cafe plus show kitchen on the first floor. the place is colourful, food is displayed everywhere – fresh, jarred, baked and takeaways – as well as beautiful cooking appariti. the staff are really friendly, and we were shown to a long table pretty quickly, which was lucky because the cafe filled up pretty quickly as the morning went on.

to cut directly to breakfast, we ordered muesli, scrambled eggs with toast and bacon, an egg-bacon sandwich and pancakes to share. my muesli was beautiful and quite my favourite thing to have in the morning – it also came with a spoon of jam which you stirred (or whacked, if you use jamie-speak) into the yoghurt and grains. the eggs were all good, and the sandwich came with a seeded bun that was particularly tasty. our only gripe was that the bacon was pretty salty – so do watch out for that.

just a note about the pancakes – these are done in my favourite american style, thick and dense. it came with syrup that I think was made with toasted butter and had an addictive nutty taste, and was also topped with a few banana slices. I was worried that we couldn’t finish the stack described in the full menu and so ordered them off the kid’s menu (love restaurants that let you do this!) and they came with two pancakes – satisfied my craving.

I have photos of the deli which I’ll share with you in my next post, but this place was pretty great. this is apparently the second recipease in london, so let me know if you’ve been there before (here are a few bloggers who have) and how you liked it! rustic but modern cafe food in a pretty setting – sometimes you don’t really want more.